Susan notes: this introduction of US President Obama by Lisa Marie Iyotte is easily one of the bravest pieces of public speaking I have ever seen. It brought tears to my eyes. I was also impressed by the President's compassion and patience: he simply stood there with her, letting her be in the moment, fully experiencing her story as she told it.

February 9, 2010, update from the Dubai Today show (weekdays 09:00 - 12:00 on Dubai 103.8):

Jessica Swann, broadcaster extraordinaire, and Mohammed Parham Awadhi, co-founder of Wild Peeta, interview 27-year-old Elham Al Qasimi, a United Arab Emirates National woman who intends to be become the first United Arab Emirates National, and thus also the first UAE National WOMAN, and the first Arab woman, to attempt reaching the North Pole unassisted and unsupported.

Thousands of women demonstrated Monday in front of Yemen's foreign ministry in the capital, Sanaa, demanding U.N. intervention in the ongoing unrest in the Persian Gulf nation, residents and eyewitnesses said.

The protest comes a day after the first woman was killed in a demonstration against the government, according to opposition activists.

Susan notes: this piece was originally posted in March 2011. It's now October 2011, and Maria is once again trying to raise money for "her kids," and The Dhaka Project - this time with a trek to Everest.

“The North Pole is out of my element, comfort zone and character, but there are people far worse off every day of their lives, compared to what I will go through for a few days.”

In his 18 years at Pinckney Community High School, Jim Darga, the principal, said, the homecoming queen had always been crowned at halftime of the school’s football game. Never before, though, had she had to be summoned from the team’s locker room.

Not until she swings a leg across her bike does Salma Pathan, 21, transform into a picture of daring.

As the Maharashtra girl guns the bike hard to defy gravity in her climb to the top of the 'wall of death' (better known as 'well' of death here), she seems a blurry orange ball whirled around with an invisible string.

The audience at the Red Fort grounds feels dazed, but not Pathan, who adroitly plucks out tenners from tentative fingers.

When villagers see these two young sisters, Fatima and Jainab, teaching at a madrassa in this small village of Rajasthan's Barmer district, they hardly believe it.

Only a handful of men can boast of being educated in this village on the western extreme of the country.

Despite being women from a minority community, these two have not only completed 'Aaleema', a religious course considered equivalent to anything from Class 12 to graduation, but also work to the aim of bringing about 100 percent literacy among girls in the area!

From WomenseNews: An Israeli-Palestinian women's group that helped pioneer the push for a two-state solution fell apart in late 2010 under pressure of heightened hostilities.

Its demise highlights the scarcity of women in peace talks in this conflict and around the world.

A Palestinian-Israeli women's group that had been pushing for a two-state solution for Israel and the occupied territories can't offer any comment on the Palestinian Authority's push for statehood recognition at the United Nations this week.